Australian Open: Paes-Stepanek in semis, Sania-Vesnina exit
Leander Paes had a productive day at the Australian Open as he made the men's doubles semifinals with Radek Stepanek and entered the mixed doubles quarterfinals with Elena Vesnina here on Wednesday.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: January 25, 2012 04:48 PM IST
Leander Paes had a productive day at the Australian Open as he made the men's doubles semifinals with Radek Stepanek and entered the mixed doubles quarterfinals with Elena Vesnina here on Wednesday.
However, it was all over for Sania Mirza and Russian Vesnina after they suffered a 6-7, 6-2, 4-6 loss at the hands of the unseeded Russian duo of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva.
The unseeded Indo-Czech pair of Paes and Stepanek registered a straight sets win over 10th seeds Eric Butorac of USA and Brazil's Bruno Soares 6-4, 7-6 in a battle that lasted an hour and 39 minutes.
Paes and Stepanek looked more comfortable than their fancied opponents in the opening set as they held their serve with ease and managed to convert the only break point they got.
The American-Brazilian duo of Butorac and Soares though came up with a better show in the second set, putting pressure on their opponents' serve.
After both pairs exchanged breaks, the set moved into a tie-breaker.
Paes and Stepanek did well to take a 3-0 lead in the tie-breaker and then held on to win it 7-4.
They will next take on second seeds Belarus' Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor of Canada for a place in the final.
Paes and his Russian partner Vesnina, meanwhile, downed unseeded Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Marcin Matkowski of Poland in straight sets 6-3 7-5 in mixed doubles.
The fifth seeded combo of Paes and Vesnina had an easy outing as they took just over an hour to wrap up the match.
In the first set, Paes and Vesnina converted four of the six break points to wrap up the set comfortably.
In the second set, Hsieh and Matkowski came back strongly, but Paes and Vesnina saved as many as five breakpoints, apart from converting three of six they received, to get the better of their rivals.
They will now take on Rohan Bopanna and American Lisa Raymond in the last eight stage.
Meanwhile, Sania and Vesnina's women's doubles campaign came to an end after a hard-fought match that lasted two hours and 33 minutes.
The sixth seeded Indo-Russian pair lost out on account of unforced errors.
Sania and Vesnina made as many as 51 unforced errors as opposed to just 24 by their Russian rivals. And even a massive 47 winners in contrast to 29 by Kuznetsova and Zvonareva could not save them.
In the junior competition, Rutuja Bhosale and her Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi rallied to beat Irina Maria Bara of Romania and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 5-7 6-1 10-7 to advance into the girls' doubles semifinals.